Of time

ByE. B. de VitoFebruary 3, 1982

She wondered, could he ever see how often, although silently, she pleaded unheeded for a moment of your time. And she recalled a Danish tale of an angel sent down to earth to plead for a moment of man's time offering, in exchange, eternal life. The angel's gift was never given -- every one had one foot in the past, the other in the future, and no one, no one had a moment of time. She wondered, would he ever find the answer to unspoken questions not bound to a yesterday or tomorrow -- the answer so evident in a present tense that was never a tense present -- as over and over, wordlessly, she framed the unspoken plea for a moment, a little moment that could be a moment's promise of eternity.